As computers have grown increasingly important in today's society, so to has the use of computer networks such as the Internet. As the use of the Internet has increased, more and more businesses have come to rely on the Internet for conducting business. The increasing use of the Internet for business has led to an increase in the number of intrusion attempts on businesses. Often, businesses limit their business use of the Internet due to fears of being attacked and having proprietary information stolen.
Often, when two businesses conduct business over the Internet, a secure connection is used to protect sensitive and proprietary information from interception. One problem with standard secure connections is that the security of the connection is dependent on the security of each of the end-points. For example, a virtual private network (VPN) connection between two businesses protects data communicated between the businesses from interception over the Internet, but does not prevent an intruder from gaining control of one of the businesses and using the VPN to access the other business.